Justices Warn NY Carry
Restrictions Raise 'Serious' Questions

By Dave Workman. Jan 16, 2023

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Supreme Court Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have warned that New York State’s restrictive new concealed carry law raises “serious” constitutional questions and “presents novel and serious questions under both the First and the Second Amendments.”

Their remarks were contained in a letter attached to the high court’s order deferring cases to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals which challenge the new law. Those cases will be heard in March, the report said. In November, U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby ruled components of New York’s “Concealed Carry Improvement Act” are unconstitutional under new guidelines issued in the Bruen ruling last June 23.

The Washington Examiner story said Alito and Thomas “made clear that the court’s denial was in no way ‘expressing any views on the merits’ of the challenges brought by firearms proponents; instead, it was to ‘reflect respect for the 2nd Circuit’s procedures in managing its own docket.’”

After the high court struck down New York’s century-old concealed carry statute—which required applicants for carry permits to provide a good cause to carry a defensive firearm—unconstitutional, the Democrat-controlled legislature in Albany scrambled to adopt an even stricter statute declaring many public places to be “sensitive locations” where firearms are prohibited, including business establishments where guns had been previously allowed. The restrictive law was immediately challenged. .....